


Remains

by Syluk



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Canonical Character Death, Child Abuse, Dark fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Major Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-05-25 15:40:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14980277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syluk/pseuds/Syluk
Summary: Trafalgar D. Water Leon tried to stay afloat after finding out that he was inevitably dying from amber lead poisoning in a few years. But how should a mere teenager keep up with that when series of overwhelming tragedies threatened to drown him over and over again?(AU, OC insert, dark fic)





	1. Trafalgar D. Water Leon

**Author's Note:**

> Am I writing an OC story?! Yeah. Yeah, I am. I have to say, now that I tried it, I understand an appeal of OC stories. It's fun to write a character that is not set in canonical frames. Leon waltzed into my mind one day and refused to leave, so I had to sit and start typing. Although, I think he may have made a different decision if he'd known what kind of dark shit I'm gonna drag him through. Too late, my dear Leon, too late.
> 
> This story is rated M for a reason!
> 
> Warnings: dark themes, underage smoking, strong language, blood, gore, deaths, violence, indiscriminate killing, macabre images, physical abuse, psychological abuse, psychological terror connected with child sexual abuse (nothing graphic, but lots of suggestions/implications; no actual rape takes place though), depression, suicidal thoughts, hints of insanity, a lot of hurt in general and not that much comfort (until someone gets his shit together).
> 
> That said, I suck at writing angst (the real, heart-wrenching angst that would leave you all in a sobbing heap; aah, I wish I could do that!), but damn me if I wouldn't try anyway.
> 
> Also, I'm taking liberties in world building (because there wasn't much information given about Flevance in canon) and changes in the development of canon characters (due to the involvement of OC).
> 
>  
> 
> English is not my first language, but this chapter was proofread by the most amazing DemonicWhispers!

**Chapter 1.** Trafalgar D. Water Leon

* * *

"Leoooooooon! Give it back!"

A young teenage boy's lips quirked up into a cocky smirk as he held a hair band in the air above the little girl, just out of her reach. She jumped, trying to grab it, but Leon snatched it away with a cheerful, "Oopsy daisy!"

The girl puffed her cheeks in petulant annoyance, her auburn hair brushing her shoulder on one side now that one of the pigtails came loose. "Oniisan!" she whined.

"I told you, Lami, that I'll give it back if you can take it back from me," the boy said seriously, but his golden eyes were alight with mischief. He wagged his little sister's pink hair band in front of her nose, taunting.

The girl glared up at him, then attempted to seize her property back. Leon was much taller than her, seeing that he was almost five years older and had gone through a growth spurt recently, and so her struggles were in vain. "Not fair, oniisan!" she complained again indignantly.

Leon ruffled her hair in a quick, rough motion, making an even bigger mess out of it and consequently aggravating his sister even more. "You're such a midget," he teased with a playful grin on his face.

Lami swatted his hand angrily, swiveled on her heel, and sprinted away along the hospital's corridor, her whiny cry ringing off its walls, "Moooooom!"

"Oi, wait!" the preteen shouted, but the girl was already out of his sight. "Che." Stuffing his hands in his jean's pockets and his feet dragging, the oldest Trafalgar child shuffled his way to the same direction, steeling himself for inevitable lecture.

"–eon is a jackass!"

Leon entered the office of his parents the moment Lami finished her sob story with a resentful statement, pouring as much enmity as was possible for an angered eight years old kid. Which was quite a lot, the boy had to admit.

"Lami! Your language!" their mother, Naomi, admonished in horror. "Where did you even learn such a bad word?"

The girl blinked innocently, then glanced at her oldest brother and smirked.

Oh, Leon knew that smirk all too well. "Lami, don–" he started, only to be interrupted by his baby sister's happy chirp, "I heard Leon-oniisan saying it!"

The preteen slapped his palm on his face, heaving out a long-suffering sigh.

Law sniggered at his misery. He sat at the desk, a pile of medical books stacked on one of its corners and a thick one together with a notebook opened in front of him.

Their father, North, was standing next to him, a disapproving scowl etched on his face as he glowered at his eldest.

"Leon!" Naomi shouted. "How could you speak like that? Especially in front of your younger siblings?"

The boy rolled his eyes in an over-dramatic manner, his head almost mimicking the arc. "It's not such a big deal," he replied dismissively. From the corner of his eye, he saw Lami sticking her tongue at him. What a brat. "She would have learned it sooner or later."

His mother put her hands on her hips and squinted suspiciously. "It's that boy again. Kian?" she asked. "It is, isn't it?"

Leon's eyes narrowed into a glare. "Well, excuse him that he wasn't born into a prestigious family," he retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"T-That's not what this is about!"

"So what is it about?"

Feeling that the boy gave her a rare chance to explain, Naomi took a deep breath. "I'm not saying that you can't be friends with Kian, but he keeps a bad company."

Apparently, this wasn't what Leon wanted to hear at all. His jaw tightened and lips drew into a thin line – a clear sign of his raised hackles.

"You were such a good child, and then you met him, dropped your medicine studies all of a sudden, and–"

"I just want to live!"

Both adults flinched at his outburst, their eyes widening.

"Live my life free," Leon huffed. "Never wanted to be a doctor anyway," he added. After a moment, he muttered out, "Whatever…" and then turned to the side, indicating the end of their conversation.

His parents never accepted his new choice in the company when almost a year ago his behavior suddenly did a one-eighty and from an exemplary child, he became a real delinquent. Their relationship started to fall apart and the distance between them grew bigger and bigger every day, despite Naomi's and North's effort to mend it.

Leon glanced back at his sister. "And you, don't you think your awesome oniisan wouldn't have had a motive behind his actions?"

Lami scrunched her face in confusion. "Motive?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

A sly smile crossed the boy's face, however, it was gone before anyone could really catch a passing glimpse. The bait was thrown and taken, time to reel it in. "Your doubts wound me," he said, putting an open palm on his chest, right on his heart, and his face morphed into a picture of absolute betrayal and hurt. "Don't you trust me? Not even a bit?"

The girl's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, Leon!" she suddenly squealed, rushing forward and tackling her brother into a hug. "I trust you!"

The preteen peeked down at her with one eye in disbelief. "Really?"

"Really, really!"

Law rolled his eyes at his siblings' theatrics. "He's lying, Lami," he stated dryly. "Probably doesn't have a motive at all."

Leon flipped him the bird, eliciting chastising, "Leon!" from both his parents and a displeased scowl from his younger brother. He ignored it all with practiced ease.

Naomi only sighed, rubbing her forehead, always getting so tired and exasperated while trying to communicate with her eldest. North came from behind her and gently put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a half hug. When she looked at him, he offered a small comforting, yet helpless smile.

Lami was staring up at Leon, her big dewy eyes clouded with intense worry.

He flashed a wide charming grin and said, "Don't listen to that nerd."

"Oi! Don't call me that!"

"How could I lie to this pretty little lady?" the older boy continued as if no one interrupted him. "You look so cute with your hair loose…" he trailed off with an apathetic shrug, pretending not to notice the girl's cheeks flushing with a light pink tint. After rummaging around in a pocket, he pulled out the hair band and extended it to his sister. "Here, you can have it back."

Lami pursed her lips. After a brief moment of thinking, she pushed Leon's hand away, then ripped the second hair band out of her pigtail, and beamed at him as her now loose hair spilled around her head.

"Much better, midget," Leon approved with a smirk. "I wish I could find a wife as adorable as you one day."

The girl's rising anger for being called 'midget' evaporated in an instant, and her whole face heated up.

Law shook his head and was about to turn back to his studies when Leon said to him, "You, on the other hand, are not cute at all, princess."

The fuming glare he received was so worth it, the preteen decided, his small smile unconsciously widening into a cheeky grin.

"Eeeeh? I thought all princesses are cute and pretty!" Lami exclaimed.

"The only cute thing about this princess is his gifted hat," Leon explained in all seriousness. "There are princesses who need to be kissed first to become cute and pretty, Lami."

"Oooh," the girl drawled, understanding brightening her face. She then furrowed her brow, looking as determined as one could get, and nodded. "I'll see to it that Law-oniisan becomes a pretty princess!"

Leon flashed thumbs-up in his support of her plan at the same time as Law exploded, "Stop stuffing her head with your idiocy! I'm not a princess!"

Before the trio could continue their usual bickering, Naomi clapped her hands and smiled in joy. "Kids," she said. "Your father and I talked, and we decided that it would be fun to go to the festival all together!"

Leon's smile vanished, replaced by an irked frown. "Not interested," he stated abruptly, pivoting on his heel and marching out of the office.

"Leon, come back here!" North demanded, following suit. When he exited through the door, the corridor was empty and the kid already gone. The Trafalgar patriarch sighed. His eldest had become a real escape master.

"You think he knows?" Naomi asked quietly as she stopped next to her husband, biting her lower lip.

North's eyebrows knitted together. "There is no way that he knows."

"But the way he said that…"

"I don't know, Naomi." The man lifted his glasses up and scrubbed a hand down his face, another deep exhale leaving his chest. "He's almost into his teenage years, maybe it's just that?"

"Mom? Dad?"

They both turned around. Law and Lami were staring at them, worry written all over their childish features. The two doctors forced themselves to smile in unison.

"So, how about that festival?" Naomi asked. "At least, for a short break. We have so many patients to take care of after all."

"Yeah!" Lami cheered, fist-pumping the air, while Law grinned happily.

* * *

Leon leaned against the door of a hospital's room where he slipped in to escape his parents. It was located on the opposite side of their office, and it wasn't the first time he used it for this purpose. The old lady that was staying here never said a word to him, probably didn't even realize that someone entered her room.

The boy waited until his family left for the festival, then strolled across the room, snatching an apple from the food tray as he passed it. The old lady still said nothing, and it's not like she ate anything without help. He stopped at the window and opened it.

Music, songs, and laughter filled the air together with a sweet smell of various festival foods.

Leon poked his head out and looked around. He spotted a couple patients sitting on a bench nearby and tsked, slightly annoyed.

"Screw it," the boy mumbled after a moment, hopping on the windowsill and then down outside. He landed in the grass, right on top of a twig, and winced when it snapped. "Yo," he greeted the startled patients as they turned around. "Don't mind me." Leon closed the window, bit into the apple, and walked away along the path out of the hospital's territory, ignoring confused gazes from the people on the bench.

At the gates, he paused, slowly chewing on the fruit. His golden eyes lazily scanned the view in front.

White. Everywhere he looked, he saw white. White streets, white buildings, even flowers bloomed white. Most people wore white clothes and white jewelry, and occasionally a person with white strands of hair or small white spots on their skin could be seen.

Leon was so sick of white that to spite it he wore mostly black, refusing to change even into his school uniform and getting into great trouble because of it.

Not that he cared at this point. He'd probably be dead before graduation anyway.

The death sentence had been written into his medical record that he read a year ago in secret.  _Lethal poisoning by the amber lead_ , it said in the neat and meticulous penmanship of Flevance's best doctor Trafalgar D. North.

The boy didn't blame his parents, not really, he wasn't that dumb. But he was angry at them for not telling, for keeping it a secret, for not understanding how he felt –  _for not finding a cure_. It was out of their hands, he knew, though that knowledge didn't make it hurt any less.

Leon flicked the core of the apple into the nearby bush, yanked the hood over his black messy hair and sauntered into the city.

* * *

Leon went directly to their group's usual meeting spot – an abandoned one-storied building at the edges of Flevance, isolated from the rest of the city by a small patch of forest.

It had been a kindergarten once, shut down half a decade ago due to the decrease in child births around the area. Now it was just a desolate corpse, left to rot unwanted and forgotten, so out of place amid the sparkling White City.

A once graveled pathway leading up to the main entrance was now almost overgrown with grass. The windows were barred up with timber that was broken in some places. The painted walls that had once been white were peeling off, and the door hung loosely on its hinges and banged in the occasional gusts of wind.

Leon entered the building and went straight to the room at the end of the corridor, already used to the smell of mildew and the stale air thick with dust that clung to decaying furniture, covered creaky floor, and, as he moved through, billowed into clouds. Shafts of light burst through gaps in the boarded up windows, catching on the particles suspended in the air.

There was something unbelievably spooky about this place, about all the deserted toys, crumbling coloring chalk, discarded textbooks full of faded, empty pages, and peeled off colorful paintings on the inner walls. There were rumors that this place was haunted, but after half a year Leon had yet to see or hear any ghosts. The only permanent occupants weaved their webs in the frames of the doors and from the ceiling to the wall, old cobwebs billowing in the draft.

Leon found Kian and the rest of the gang in the room they had claimed as their own. A few months ago, they still had next door neighbors, some thugs who were drunk or high more often than not, but then they decided to come looking for trouble. Despite being mere kids – with Kian being the oldest at barely fifteen – they showed just how much trouble they were really worth. Those thugs never returned after getting their asses handed to them.

Leon entered the room the moment Finn – the rotund teen with a maze of freckles across his cheeks and nose – smacked his cards on the table with a joyful whoop, fist-pumped the air, and started dancing.

The other boys groaned.

"That's what you get, looooooosers~!"

"Aw, man," Aryan moaned, dragging a palm over his face. "I lost my pocket money again!"

"That's disgusting, Piggy, stop dancing," Soren grumbled, pushing his beli towards Finn.

Leon passed the card players, offering them only a distant 'hey', and walked right at the back of the room where Kian was sitting on the ratty couch, an open, small notebook in one hand and a pencil in another. He kept nibbling on its ending, a thoughtful frown etched in his brow as he stared intently at something written on the pages.

Because of this image, everyone started calling him Kian the Poet; however, no one knew what exactly he was scribbling in that mysterious notebook all the time.

Leon plopped down next to his best friend with a sigh, laid his head at the back of the couch and threw his arm over his eyes.

Kian's eyes flicked from his notebook at him and his eyebrow rose at all the distressed signals he was sending out. "What's up?"

The younger boy groaned. "Nothing, just…" He paused. "My family is driving me insane."

Nolan cackled where he dealt the cards for another round of the game. "Your family is all freaks, Leon."

Leon's head snapped back up, his eyes narrowing into furious golden slits. "Pretty ballsy of you, Nolan, to call my baby siblings freaks."

Nolan instantly realized how greatly he just screwed up with his lame joke and his eyes widened. Even if Trafalgar was the youngest among them, he was recognized by all as the second in their group's hierarchy, right after Kian, and had a reputation of a mean fighter and being extremely protective of his brother and sister, especially the latter.

"S-Sorry, Leon," the blond cowered.

"Hey," Kian called out softly, patting his younger friend on his shoulder. "Let's go take a smoke."

"Are you offering?" Leon asked, his glare fixed firmly on the target. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his knuckles – they were getting itchy – and made the other boy sweat in apprehension. "I'm out."

"Yup."

"Alright."

Nolan edged subtly as far as possible from their second-in-command as two boys passed them on their way out of the room and heaved a not so subtle sigh in relief when they exited.

The duo walked along the corridor for a bit, then entered the kitchen area. It had a roof caved in on one of its corners, making it a perfect ramp to climb on the roof.

The boys perched on the edge, overlooking an abandoned playground in the backyard. Kian pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered it to Leon before taking one for himself. After lighting it up, they both sat there in silence.

Leon was the first to break it with a question, "What do you want to talk about?"

Kian shot him a wry smile. "How do you know that I want to talk?"

"You offered me a smoke. For free." The raven shrugged. "You'd have just said to cut it otherwise."

The teen chuckled. "Right. Always so smart," he commented fondly. "Well, it's more like I wanted to show you something," he explained, biting his cigarette and shifting slightly to the side so that he could lift his shirt and reveal his torso. There was a white patch on his side, easily visible juxtaposed against Kian's natural darker skin. "Appeared maybe a week ago."

Leon's eyes grew bigger for a second, before his expression smoothed into something sad and disheartening with a tinge of defeat. "Damn," he muttered under his breath, his eyes moving from his friend to stare at the forest in front, his smoldering cigarette hanging limply between his fingers.

The silence enveloped them in its comforting embrace, interrupted only by some birds' voices and fragments of merry songs, brought by the wind from the city.

"So, how long do I have?"

Leon shrugged again, taking a drag of his cigarette. "It's different for every person, I'm no doctor," he said, blowing out a cloud of smoke and grinding the leftover butt into the roof. "Maybe as long as me, maybe longer, maybe shorter. Who knows."

Kian looked at him. "How long for you?"

"Five years, give or take."

"At least you won't have to sit through the school's graduation exams."

The preteen unexpectedly laughed. It was a short, bitter laughter, but no other person could have made him even crack a smile while talking about this kind of topic. Kian was his best friend for many reasons.

They sat there again in silence. Two young kids casually thinking about the approaching dates of their death – such a messed up situation.

Kian extinguished his cigarette into the roof, then flicked it away into the grass below with a thoughtful, "Everyone's dying, huh." When he received a soft hum in agreement, he continued, "You know, my dad's a soldier and he's doing his duty on Flevancian borders. A few days ago he came back home and just…" He trailed off, ruffling his own light brown hair. "Got completely wasted, started hugging and kissing us all while sobbing his eyes out. I swear, slobbered all over me," he complained with a kind-hearted grin, eliciting a chuckle from his friend. Mirth was short-lived, however, because after a moment Kian drew his eyebrows together into a grim expression. "It seems that other countries are blocking our borders. I'm not really that good with politics and stuff, but even I understand that it doesn't sound good."

"Blocking our borders?"

"No one can leave or enter."

Leon gawked at him in disbelief. Didn't that mean that they were closed off from the rest of the world? What would become of them? Would they simply die out in isolation? He glared at the distance when some lose words from the song reached his ears. "And they're having a festival to celebrate that," he hissed angrily before suddenly throwing his arms up in the air, frustrated. "Aaaaah! I want to punch something!"

Kian's lips twitched up into an amused smirk. He heaved himself slightly up and then leaped down. "Let's go find that something to punch!"

* * *

With a running start, Leon easily vaulted himself over their garden's fence, landing precisely between two blooming shrubs of flowers. A neighbor's cat screeched in fright as it jumped high into the air and scurried away in a flash.

The boy chuckled to himself. This was the cat that kept pooping on his mom's precious herbs and making her sad, so he had no sympathy to offer for the poor creature. What went around came around.

It was already late into the night. The festival ended a few hours ago, people retired to their homes, and the city sunk into sleepy stillness under the starry dark sky.

Leon ran his tongue over his split lip and slowly slinked towards the house. He was already prepared to hear the lecture, chiding, reprimand, admonition – all damn sermon – from his parents, so there was no point stalling what was inevitable.

He entered the house quietly, pricking his ears for any telltale of Naomi's footsteps, but there was nothing. The whole building was silent and dark. That was strange.

The preteen poked his head into the sitting room – empty. Getting slightly worried, he walked into the kitchen and that was where he found Law.

His little brother was sleeping half lying on the table, his arms folded under his head, his fur hat and a small parcel, wrapped into a bright yellow paper, resting beside his elbow.

Leon put a hand on the younger boy's shoulder and gently shook him.

Law stirred, blinking tiredly. It took him a few seconds to orient himself, but once he did, Leon was exposed to his patented scowl topped with an irritated glare. "Where have you been, Leon?"

The older raven shrugged. "Around," he replied dismissively. "Well, if mom and dad don't want to read a lecture today, I'm off to bed. You should do the same, princess."

Law watched him turn to leave. "Lami collapsed today," he said softly before his brother could disappear around the corner. "They both stayed at the hospital with her."

Leon stiffened and closed his eyes, his face morphing into a pained expression. So, Lami would go first, huh. After a moment, he exhaled all air out of his lungs, returned to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

Meanwhile, Law lighted up a candle.

"How is she?" Leon asked finally, picking at freshly clotted scrapes and bruises on his knuckles. It had been a wild evening, even for his standards.

"Mom and dad are very scared."

"Yeah, I bet."

They lapsed into silence.

Law's scowl deepened as he observed his brother's action. "You'll make it worse, stop it," he ordered, slapping his hand away. "Idiot," he added in that half-fond, half-annoyed tone that was reserved exclusively for Leon. "Wait here," the boy grumbled, strutting out of the kitchen. Soon he came back with a small first-aid kit in his hands.

As Law began cleaning his knuckles with all the professional concentration ten years old kid could muster, Leon wondered if his little brother knew about the death penalty hanging above all their heads. Probably not. But he was a smart kid, possibly smarter than him, so he definitely suspected something was up. A sudden influx of patients with the same symptoms and their weekly health check-ups weren't painting a picture that everything was perfectly fine.

The knowledge about the impending death was crippling and debilitating, so Leon was glad that his brother didn't know about it. He smiled. "Now, who are you and what did you do with my grumpy baby brother? He never was this cute."

"Shut up!" Law snapped, intentionally spilling more stinging medicine on his scrapes that was strictly necessary.

Leon hissed in pain. "I was wrong. Still not cute at all," he groused, receiving a smug smirk in return.

The younger raven finished his work, packed the first-aid kit, and then glanced at the small parcel. Reaching to take it, he offered it to his brother and mumbled, "This is a gift." His amber colored eyes – a few shades deeper than Leon's – shyly shifted to the side. "Lami and I found it in the festival and thought you'd like it... Mom helped us to buy it, so you better like it," he finished with a threat and a quick glare at his direction.

Leon took the gift, feeling stunned. "A gift? On what occasion?" he inquired curiously, carefully unwrapping the neatly done wrapping.

"Your birthday is in a few months… Lami asked to give it to you now."

The older raven's hands stilled for a brief moment before continuing on with his task. The first thing he saw was a leather string and as he pulled at it, a pendant came loose from the paper.

It was a wolf's head made of black metal with its teeth bared and golden crystal eyes glittering when they occasionally caught and reflected candle's light.

Leon stared at it in awe, speechless.

Law's expression started to falter as his brother said nothing for a seemingly very long minute. He fidgeted. "Sorry, we couldn't find anything with a lion and–"

"It's perfect! I love it," the older boy declared sincerely, tying the pendant around his neck. "Thanks."

A small pleased smile curled on Law's lips.

"I don't have anything for you," Leon spoke, pulling something out of his hoodie's pocket. "But I'm pretty sure Lami will agree to share this with you."

Law stared at the two hairpins with pink, fluffy bunnies attached to their ends, before he leveled his usual glare at his smirking older brother. "You're such an ass," he grumbled, picking up his hat and standing up with the intention to go to his room. In the doorway he hesitated, glancing back at Leon, who still had that shit-eating grin on his face. "Hey… oniisan," he called out in a small, uncertain voice.

The preteen grew serious in an instant. Law only called him 'oniisan' when he was truly scared and needed his big brother to fix the world for him. Unfortunately, Leon couldn't fix everything despite how much he wished he could, but damn if he wouldn't try anyway. He had never teased his siblings when they were this vulnerable either.

"What is it, Law?" he prodded gently when the younger boy didn't elaborate on what was on his mind.

"Will you–" Law stopped, cleared his throat, took a deep breath. After a moment, he looked at his brother with a determination plastered on his face and put forward a hopeful question, "Will you come with me to the hospital tomorrow?"

Leon's eyes softened and he smiled again; this time it was a fond and warm curve. He blew off the candle and stood up to leave too, feeling the intensity of Law's gaze on him. Leon ruffled his hair affectionately as he walked past him with a quiet, but reassuring, "Of course, little brother."

* * *

**Next Chapter.** Streets Ran Red


	2. Streets Ran Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaread by DemonicWhispers!

**-several months later-**

Flevance was falling apart.

Where once stood the glorified White City, now there was only a fading ghost town, mere remains of the highly sought miraculous land. Streets that once were full of laughter and joy now remained mostly empty and desolate. Shops were closed, glass shards of their shattered windows covering the ground. Statues had been broken, fountains stopped, and flowers – stomped on or uprooted and probably eaten.

It was getting worse every minute, Leon thought as he trudged through the dying city.

The crime was at its highest possible and no one seemed to give a damn about it. No one was left to give a damn about it. The royal family fled their own country weeks ago, leaving their subjects to their own devices.

Food was almost gone. What few farms Flevance had around on the outskirts were not enough to feed everyone and they had been plundered weeks ago. With a strict quarantine over the country's borders, there was no way to get more food. They were left to starve.

The teen still couldn't forget the crestfallen faces of his parents when they told him that they couldn't get a cake for his thirteenth birthday two weeks ago. Like he cared about that; he was just happy to spend his last birthday with his family before they all perished from hunger. Or riotous crowds. Or lack of medicine. Or amber lead. Whichever claimed them first.

People were irritated, angry, tired, hungry, sick, and in pain, their spirits as broken as the city around them. Leon heard doctors talking that they didn't know what to do with corpses anymore – all morgues were full, cemeteries didn't have space anymore, and the crematorium was overloaded.

Madness. That's what it was.

The boy spotted a group of rough looking guys ahead and ducked into the nearest alley. He wouldn't even be here at this late hour if Kian wouldn't have contacted him about wanting to meet.

He found his best friend on the roof of the abandoned kindergarten. As he sat down next to him, the older teen offered him a cigarette. "Ooh, you still have some," Leon said in surprise.

"Saved it for a special occasion," Kian replied with a crooked grin. Before the raven could ask, he spoke again, "My dad thinks that he found a way to get us out of this shithole. We're leaving in a few days."

Leon whipped his head at his friend and stared at him with wide eyes. "Are you serious? They slaughter everyone who tries to cross the border! You said so yourself."

"Yeah," the older boy agreed. "We're gonna die anyway, right? And maybe we'll succeed, who knows. Not that it would make any difference, but…" He ruffled his hair with a frustrated groan. "They are my family, you know. My parents, my sisters, and my brother."

The younger boy's shoulders slumped, fight leaving him right away. This wasn't an argument he could win against. "Yeah," he conceded, fully understanding his devotion.

Kian laughed. "We're so screwed for being born as big brothers, eh?" he joked, causing his friend to crack a smirk. "Oh, by the way," he suddenly said, pushing his hand inside his jacket and pulling out his mysterious notebook. "I'm a bit late, but happy birthday."

Leon stared at the offered item before tentatively taking it, curiosity settling on his features.

"Sorry to disappoint you but there are no poems in there," Kian informed cheerily.

"Eeeh? So, what is it?" the raven asked as he flipped the notebook open.

"A story," the other teen answered, his brown eyes drifting to gaze somewhere beyond the patch of the forest, beyond Flevance and its borders, beyond their misery and all the deaths. "A story about a boy who wanted to live free."

"Hmmm," Leon hummed in reply, reading a few sentences. Then he snapped it shut and stuffed into his pocket. "Thanks."

Kian slowly stood up and stretched. He dropped a finished cigarette on the roof and ground it with his boot. "I guess this is a goodbye then."

"You talk like we're gonna die soon."

They both burst into laughter. Death had become a normal thing in Flevance, an everyday occurrence. What else were they supposed to joke about?

The two friends climbed down the broken roof into the kindergarten's kitchen area, chatting about this and that, cherishing their last moments together. Kian was the first one to walk out into the corridor, Leon falling a few steps behind as he stopped to extinguish his smoke into the wall next to the door.

They didn't see them coming, didn't hear their footsteps or their hushed voices. They felt safe here, the thought to be on guard never crossed their minds.

The only thing they heard was a sharp echo of a gunshot.

Startled, Leon turned towards the sound, only to meet the splatter of blood, and his eyes instinctively shut. Time seemed to slow down to a snail's pace, but his heart sped up, reaching a frightening speed in an instant, as he rubbed a sleeve across his face. Then he dared to open his eyes and look.

His best friend's name got strangled somewhere along his throat the moment he saw him.

Kian's head was suddenly not as whole as it should have been – a deep dent gaping at its left side, his eye completely gone. With a small smile of surprise still curved on his lips, he just stood there. As if nothing had happened.

More shots resounded across the building. Kian's body jerked from the force and finally fell.

Leon caught it. His knees gave way, and they both collapsed on the floor.

Someone was yelling. Approaching heavy footsteps rang off the walls.

The teen barely registered all that, because there was unnatural redness spreading across his arms and chest, seeping into his clothes. All he could feel was warm and slick liquid on his hands and on his face. All he could focus on was the red mixed with white covering him and the limp, lifeless body of his best friend.

Suddenly, there was an urge to run, to escape, to hide.

He had to get away. He couldn't stay here.

Blinded by raw fear and driven by a primal instinct to flee, Leon scrambled from under Kian. His foot slipped on the puddle of blood and he almost went back down. But he did not stop.

Several bullets embedded themselves into the wooden carcass of the caved in roof that the boys used to climb up.

"Kill all the infected! Leave no survivors!"

Leon skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof.

The backyard of the kindergarten was crawling with unfamiliar armed soldiers, their faces hidden under gas masks, weapons at their sides.

The boy immediately jumped down, avoiding another barrage of bullets by a hair's breadth. His shoulder hit the ground and a cry of pain pushed its way through his constricted throat. Yet, he was on his feet and running in the next second.

Chased by bullets, Leon dived into the forest. After several minutes of stumbling across the shadows, he burst out of it on the other side and stopped short with his breath hitching at the sight in front of him.

Flevance was burning.

The entire city burned in a sea of ghastly red, yellow and orange. Unfettered flames devoured everything in their path hungrily, licking and lapping at the houses, twisting and swaying in a dance without rhythm. Tendrils of smoke billowed into the night sky as if trying to escape the blazing inferno below.

A twig snapped behind him, jolting the young boy out of his shocked stupor, and he bolted without a glance back.

The city was in chaos. Terrified people were running everywhere, trying to save themselves and their loved ones. Screams and wails echoed into the night. Soldiers with gas masks, armed with rifles and flamethrowers, marched through the streets, killing, slaughtering, and burning everything in their way without exception.

Leon had just walked past this area around an hour ago. Nothing had been out of place.

However, he had neither time nor the proper state of mind to ponder on how it was possible for these murderers to appear here so unexpectedly. Dodging another group, that was busy laughing loudly at the burning people in front of them and mocking their screams, he rushed forward through the streets, streets that were drowned in insanity and blood.

There were no soldiers yet in the part of Flevance where the hospital was located. With his mind still in shambles, panic pumping through his veins, Leon didn't dare to stop even for a quick break to catch his breath. The gates of the hospital were closed, a bunch of civilians crowding it, so he had to use an emergency entry – climb the tree that grew beside the fence at the back and jump inside the hospital's territory.

As Leon sprinted through the hospital's corridors, someone tried to stop him. He didn't – couldn't – wasn't in his right mind to recognize the person, all he saw were those scary soldiers laughing, shooting, burning everything around them…

Leon leapt to the side like a spooked animal, escaping the hands that wanted to grab him, but his legs got tangled or maybe he slipped – the boy wasn't even sure anymore – and he slammed into the hard wall. Momentarily stunned, he lost his balance and stumbled, falling on his knees. He was back on his feet the next instant, continuing his mad dash towards the office of his parents, towards his family – towards safety.

He burst into the room the moment his father yelled into the Den Den Mushi's receiver, "It's not contagious! Why doesn't the Government report that?!" and he just stopped, completely frozen, barely able to suck in the air, his mind scrambling to make sense of this new, cruel world around him.

"Oh my god, Leon!" Naomi shouted. In a flash, she was right in front of her eldest son, her warm hands cupping his bloody cheeks. "Leon! Leon, honey, look at me." When there was no reaction, she brushed his wet bangs out of his eyes and repeated calmly, "Leon, listen to my voice and breath. In and out, in and out." She cleaned some of the blood and grime from his pale face with the sleeve of her blouse as she repeated the instructions over and over.

The boy's wide, panicked eyes finally focused on her and his erratic breathing started to even out.

"That's it, baby, you're doing fine. You'll get through this. Your dad and I are here for you."

As his panic began to subside, Leon's previously stretched thin nerves uncoiled, the whole traumatic experience flooded his mind, and tears sprung into his eyes.

North came from behind his wife and put a comforting hand on his son's shoulder. "Leon, are you hurt? Where is this blood coming from?"

"W-What..?" the boy stuttered out, glancing down at his hoodie, and his breathing sped up again. "Th-this– Kian's… He went first and– We didn't hear them… The bullet just– I-It went through here," a trembling hand covered his left eye, "and-and-and his eye– his eye was suddenly gone… I-I r-ran…" At this point, Leon was already openly sobbing.

Naomi pulled her child into a tight embrace, her hand stroking the back of his head soothingly.

Leon fisted his hands into her blouse. "I left him, mom. I just ran…. What if– What if he was still alive? I just left him…"

"You did nothing wrong, Leon," Naomi said softly. "Injuries like that can't be healed, so you did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all." She planted a loving kiss on his temple, a stray tear sliding down her cheek. "I'm so sorry, honey, so sorry."

North patted his son's head, sighing in relief that he at least came back safe.

The boy fell apart in his mother's arms, letting all that terror out. He may have been mature for his age, but in the end, he was only a thirteen year old child. Seeing such things that would leave adults traumatized would certainly scar him for life. The worst was that there was no time left to properly help him with this kind of experience. What they were about to ask him to do, might be too hard for him to handle in his current condition, but they had no other choice left.

"Naomi…" North said quietly.

His wife caught on the urgent undertone. Leon was slowly calming down. Though it still wasn't enough, but despite all her motherly and doctor's instincts screaming at her not to do it just yet, give her kid more time, they were quickly running out of it. "Leon." She pushed him gently away and looked directly into his golden eyes – just like his father's. "Leon, we want to ask you to do something very important," she spoke in a kind voice, wiping tears from his grime smeared cheeks. "Can you hear us out?"

The boy sniffled. Then inhaled and exhaled, composing himself as much as possible. "…Yeah."

Naomi stroked his hair, unable to believe the blessing of having such a smart and strong-willed son. She brushed a hand across her eyes, getting rid of unshed tears, schooling her features to remain of modest concern rather than heart-wrenching grief. "Your father managed to contact an old friend outside Flevance. He agreed to help to get you three out of here. There is a safe passage through the borders… Leon, you have to take care of your brother and sister."

Leon stared at her in absolute disbelief. His gaze flicked up at his father. "What? Have you both gone insane?!" he shouted. "They're slaughtering people at the border!" His parents said nothing, their loving eyes full of sadness. He gritted his teeth. "What's the point of us running away if we die anyway?! If not from bullets or fire, then from this poison in our bodies!"

"Oh, honey." Naomi's palm was cupping his cheek again, her thumb gently moving back and forth, and while Leon was angry, he couldn't force himself to swat her warm hand away. "How long have you known?"

The teen shifted from one foot to another and looked down, suddenly feeling guilty. "…Maybe a year."

North shook his head with another sigh. There was no time for reprimands. "Leon, listen," he said as his hand squeezed the boy's shoulder, getting his attention. "Once on the other side, go to my brother to Ononola Island. He was helping us examine amber lead and search for a way to remove it from a person's body. If anybody can help, he can."

Leon blinked. "Your brother? That psycho?"

His father's lips twitched up against his will.

A gunshot echoed from somewhere within the hospital.

Leon flinched at the sound, the gory image of Kian's head crawling into the forefront of his mind again with its missing eye and blood and blown up brains and–

"Leon."

His mother's sharp voice startled him back into reality. She looked extremely worried. The teen's eyes passed her and fixated on his father who pushed a cabinet slightly to the side, revealing a niche behind it.

Naomi took the boy's hand and tugged him to follow. They stopped next to the open up hole in the wall and she looked straight her eldest in the eyes again. "Whatever happens, Leon, live," she said, kissing his forehead and then shoving him inside.

There was just enough space for him and maybe another adult person or two more kids. Leon had no idea about something like this existing in the office in the first place.

The screech of the cabinet being dragged alarmed him. He turned around just in time to take a glimpse of his father's face before it disappeared as the cabinet stood back in place, but not before he heard his parting words, "We love you, son."

"W-What– Wait!" Leon screamed, throwing himself at the back of the cabinet and pounding it a few times. "Mom! Dad!"

The sound of a door being broken on the other side caused him to stop. He could hear a bunch of unfamiliar voices shouting and his parents pleading them to stop because the amber lead poisoning wasn't contagious and could be healed and–

They never let them finish.

Leon recoiled from the entrance violently when the shooting started. With his heart hammering inside his chest, he backed off until he hit the corner. Putting his arms over his ears in a vain attempt to block the sounds, he slid down and curled in on himself, choking out a sob.

Leon stayed like that even after everything went quiet. Until a sudden wail of unimaginable grief snapped him out of it. He knew that voice, would have recognized it anywhere. "Law…" he whispered. After another moment, he jumped to his feet.

Sounds of shots pierced the air on the other side, and the boy's heart seemed to cease beating.

"Don't let him get away! Kill him!"

Leon drew a sharp breath, rammed his shoulder at the cabinet, and pushed. "Come on…" he forced out through clenched teeth, pouring all his strength into this. Just how goddamn heavy this thing was?!

After several minutes of pushing, it seemed to move an inch, something crashing on the other side. Leon hooked his fingers around the edge and pulled, then tried to push again. It took a significant amount of time to make a gap wide enough for him to squeeze through. When he was finally free, his eyes instinctively searched the room.

His parents were there, lying next to each other, his father's arm around his mother protectively, a big, crimson puddle still spreading around on the floor.

Leon shut his eyes, curling his fingers into tight fists, and turned around. The air was permeated with a raw, acrid, heavy, and festering scent, like a slaughterhouse. His stomach flipped, feeling queasy.

Considering himself steady enough, Leon opened his eyes, but never looked in the direction of his parents again. They were dead and no prayers would bring them back. His top priority right now was Law and Lami.

Leon didn't see Law's body in the office, so all he could do was hope that his little brother managed to escape. Lami, on the other hand, could barely move.

When Leon exited the office, he was hit with hot, suffocating air.

The boy's chest grew tight. The hospital was on fire.

Not wasting any precious time, he sprinted across the corridor, shielding his head with his arms from the occasional flames. But the fire was spreading, devouring the inner wooden structure of the building faster and faster. Leon had to stop as a coughing fit assaulted him on the stairs to the next floor.

The corridor leading towards his sister's room was already engulfed by flames, licking at the walls and climbing up to the ceiling. Leon's heart sunk. He coughed again, feeling dizzy. After covering his nose and mouth with his forearm, he looked around, his mind whirling.

There was no time to find a better solution. With a curse, Leon clenched his teeth, and just ran straight through the burning tunnel that was once a hospital's corridor.

The door to Lami's room was open, and Leon burst in, wheezing and coughing. He needed to get out of here fast, but he was not going anywhere without his baby sister. Wildly looking around, he couldn't see her. Flames were everywhere: on walls, on the wardrobe, on the bed, on the curtains…

But no Lami.

Something combusted from the heat on the room next door and the wall exploded, the blast sending the slightly disoriented teen into the burning curtains, through the window, and into the tree that grew outside.

Leon wasn't quite able to grab the tree branch to avoid falling down. He landed, hard solid ground meeting his back with a shocking force. The burning curtain got wrapped around his right arm, setting it on fire. With a hiss, he shook the material off and patted the leftover flames.

Dazed, Leon stood on shaky legs. He staggered as the world swayed dangerously and wobbled away from the burning hospital, along the fence towards the gate, without any destination in mind.

Now that the adrenaline was gradually leaving his system, the exhaustion, the steadily growing pain from all the burns and bruises, the devastating despair and hopelessness threatened to drown him. Yet, he felt numb and detached from the situation, as if he was just a passerby watching this horror movie happening to some stranger.

The teen was slowly making his way out of the fenced area when he first heard and then saw a small kneeling figure in front of the open gate. Leon halted for half a second, his eyes widening in surprise and disbelief. With a miraculous burst of energy, he crossed the distance that separated them, collapsed next to his wailing little brother, and pulled him into his arms with tears in his eyes – just crushed Law against his chest, an overwhelming sense of relief washing his whole being.

Law was alive.

God, he still had his brother.

Law seemed startled by a sudden presence, stiffening in the unexpected embrace. Soon, he recognized who it was and relaxed. "O-Oniisan…" he sobbed out, his little hands fisting into Leon's hoodie as he continued crying into his brother's chest.

"Law," Leon called out softly after a few long minutes, "what happened to Lami?"

"Wardrobe… in her room… I didn't know where you are… I thought–" the boy hiccupped, "that she'd be safe…"

Wardrobe in Lami's room… Leon's heart skipped a beat and his arms around his little brother tightened.

The wardrobe was definitely on fire.

Lami was gone.

But he still had his little brother.

Approaching heavy footsteps and muffled voices reached Leon's ears and his head snapped towards it.

Shit.

Law was in no condition to walk yet, and he had no strength to carry him.

An idea popped into his head and he immediately pressed them both to the ground, shielding his brother with his own body. "Shhhh," he soothed. "They're returning. Play dead, Law."

The warning worked. Law pushed his head into the crook of his neck and, while Leon could still feel the ever-growing wetness, the little guy was doing a fantastic job of lowering the volume into quiet sniffling. With the roaring inferno right next to them, no one could hear it.

They lay like that – just two more corpses amongst the sea of them – when two soldiers rounded the corner and started to check the dead people around them, the cheerfulness in their voices making Leon's blood boil.

Looters. Damn scavengers, that's what they were.

They moved even closer, inspecting every dead body, and the boys felt panic creeping in. Law was not even crying anymore, just holding onto his big brother with his eyes shut tight, waiting for the inevitable.

One guy whistled in appreciation, lifting something up from the woman he had just ransacked. "These people are loaded!" he exclaimed.

The second soldier cackled, adjusting his rifle, and crouched down to the man, lying right next to the two boys. He instantly jumped to his feet again, fumbling with his weapon in a hurry.

The brothers forgot how to breathe.

The man pulled a trigger.

"The hell are you doing, dumbass?!" his companion bellowed.

"Son of a bitch!" the soldier cursed, lowering his weapon and adjusting his gasmask. "I thought he moved. Hahahaha! That scared me! You never can be sure with these white monsters."

"Idiot! Almost scared me to death!"

"Sorry, sorry."

Shots resounded somewhere nearby, and both men looked at that direction. After a terse debate, they begrudgingly trotted away, leaving the dead for themselves again.

Leon let air rush out of his lungs and it came out as a mirthless laughter that quickly died under the urgency of the situation. He pushed himself up.

They needed to get out of the streets. Right now.

"Law, can you stand?" he asked, struggling to do exactly that himself. The burn on his arm pulsated in an excruciating pain under the strain of the slightest movement, and his expression was twisted into a grimace as he endured.

Law nodded mutely. After standing up, he promptly latched onto his big brother's hoodie as if afraid that he would disappear into thin air and he'd be left completely alone.

Like that, the two brothers proceeded to move towards their old home.

The nightmare wasn't finished yet, but Leon and Law got lucky. There was a big scuffle not far from their route – it seemed that people of Flevance were putting quite a fight over there – and it consequently drew all the enemy forces to that place. They reached their house after over an hour of careful trudging through streets awash with blood and the dead and going around the obstacles on fire.

Leon was barely keeping himself vertical. The last few hundred meters he leaned heavily on his little brother, only half aware of it. His head was pounding, his arm felt like it was on fire again, and his back and shoulder ached. He toppled onto the couch in their living room, his body refusing to move any longer.

"Leon," Law called, gently shaking the teen. He got even more anxious when all he got was a jumbled murmur. "Oniisan, you need to dress your burns." This time no reply came at all. He waited a bit longer. "Oniisan?" With dread pooling in his gut, the boy pressed his trembling fingers to Leon's neck – just how his father taught him – and held his breath.

There was a pulse.

He still had his big brother.

Law straightened up, his features hardened with resolve. It was his turn to help him.

* * *

**Next Chapter.** River of the Dead


	3. River of the Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by DemonicWhispers!

Awareness came gradually along with a throbbing headache and searing pain in his arm. Leon opened his eyes, blinked, adjusting to the surrounding half-darkness. The faint light of dawn, pouring through the window wall of the backyard, was not enough to fully brighten the room.

His gaze immediately went down to inspect his injured limb – he was a son of two doctors, the danger of infection had been ingrained into his brain from the moment he received his first knee scrape – only to see that it had already been taken care off.

White bandages covering the whole length of his arm seemingly glowed in the room's dimness. What was left of the sleeve of his hoodie after catching fire had been cut in two and carefully peeled off of his flesh. He could still spot gauzes and various other things strewed around the couch, table, and floor.

Leon's eyes drifted to his other side.

Law was soundly asleep with his head resting on his brother's uninjured shoulder.

The teen's head plopped back to rest on the couch, a sigh escaping his parched lips. He closed his eyes, thinking over what they should do now. Whatever way out his father had found was now lost. He wondered if Kian's family survived and was still planning to leave…

The image of his best friend getting his brains blown up slivered to the forefront of his mind again. The sight of his parents' bodies, riddled with bullets; his burning and screaming sister…

Leon's eyes snapped open, his breathing suddenly fast and uneven. His stomach churned, the taste of acid burning at the back of his throat.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. Right. No closing his eyes for him. All those memories mixed with products of his imagination didn't help to keep him sane, and he needed to be as sharp as possible.

His gaze wandered down to his little brother again. They also required supplies if they wanted to stay alive, escape Flevance, and reach Ononola Island. How they were going to do that was still beyond Leon, but he would think of something.

He had already failed Lami, but he would absolutely not fail Law.

Footsteps on the front porch jolted him out of his thoughts. He tensed, prickling his ears, hoping against all hope that it was just his newly developed paranoia talking…

He didn't even have to listen, because the front door was kicked open with a bang and someone walked in, shouting to someone to hurry up.

Damn those scavengers for working in pairs.

Leon instantly acted on his first idea: he slapped a hand on Law's mouth and dragged him down to the floor. Fearful amber eyes focused on him and he put a finger on his mouth, then pointed towards the kitchen where looters were rummaging around noisily.

Leon let Law go only when he received a nod and tugged his sleeve to follow him. Bit by bit, trying not to make even the slightest sound, they crawled around the couch. From there, the doors leading to their backyard was just a few steps away…

Deep laughter at the entrance of the living room startled them both. Law pressed a hand on his own mouth to not accidentally let even a single syllable out.

The man seemed to pause at the other end of the couch. "Ooh, we might have someone alive here, Rollo!" he hollered to his partner. "Just look at all these used medical supplies."

"Eeeh? They might have already left or more likely got killed already."

Leon glanced around, checked his pockets. The only thing that he could throw and distract the looters was Kian's notebook. He really didn't want to use it like that, but if it meant to save his baby brother–

A pat on his shoulder drew the teen's attention to said brother. The latter held out a small metallic box to him, his other fist full of tiny paper pockets – their mom's herb mixes – that he stuffed back into his jacket pocket.

A ghost of a smirk passed Leon's lips as he took the box. Great minds thought alike, huh. Cautiously peeking around the corner, he observed both soldiers for a bit until they had their backs turned, then threw the box across the living room towards the stairs to the second floor.

It hit the wooden floor with an acute ding, bounced off, hit it one more time and then rolled loudly until it came to a stop.

Both looters sprang out of the living room with their rifles raised.

That's when the brothers leaped from their hiding spot, ripped the door open, and dashed outside.

Law stopped short at the fence, panic bubbling inside him because there was no way that he would manage to jump over it. Leon grabbed him from behind under his armpits and lifted him up, groaning painfully, but it was enough for the younger boy to latch at the top and with another push from his brother, he went over and dropped on the other side.

Leon backed up a bit to get a better running start. Bullets whizzed after him, but they ricocheted off of the metallic fence when the teen vaulted over it. His injured arm gave way, unable to completely keep his weight in this kind of activity, and he crashed to the ground.

"Leon!" Law exclaimed in alarm.

"'M fine…" Leon mumbled, suddenly feeling breathless, head spinning, but he was already pushing himself up, driven by flight instinct more than anything else. With some help from his brother, he was back up on his feet and running again.

After several minutes of wild blind fleeing, they both had to stop to catch their breath. Leon crouched down, cradling his right arm and curling in on himself, willing the agony away. His teeth were clenched so tightly that they threatened to shatter under the pressure.

Feeling a tentative warm touch on his head, he looked up; the worried face of his little brother met his tired golden eyes.

"Here," Law said, offering him something. "It's for the pain."

Leon took the paper pocket without a word and swallowed the herb mix dry, coughing when it got into his throat pipe.

The younger boy put a palm on the teen's forehead, scrunching his face in concentration. "You have a fever."

Leon pushed his hand away and stood up, swayed, but stubbornly stayed standing. "I'm fine, Law, don't worry."

His brother pinned him with a concerned glare, not believing his lame lies even for a moment. He opened his mouth to argue–

A guy rounded the corner, speaking with someone out of sight. "I think I heard someone talk–" he cut himself off and blinked in surprise when he saw the two kids.

For one long second, no one moved, just stared at each other.

Then the soldier lifted his gun.

The older boy grabbed his stunned brother and pressed him to his chest, shielding him from the inevitable.

The man pulled the trigger and the shot rang loudly in the deathly silence.

First thing Leon felt was buzzing in his ears, like someone stuffed bees inside of them. Then – a very tight pressure at the left side of his head and warm blood flowing down his neck and getting under his collar. His vision blurred. Pain set in last, unbearable, indescribable pain, like someone drilled a hole through his skull.

Honestly, there was nothing better than the blissful darkness that plucked him under.

* * *

Leon collapsed on top of Law and they both went down.

Law's first impulse was to scream, to shake his brother, to check if he was still alive, because,  _god_ , he could feel blood gushing out of his head wound, splattering everywhere on them, on the ground, and he just couldn't lose his brother, his last family, his last loved one, he just couldn't–

But he couldn't do any of that. He couldn't move, he couldn't think, he couldn't breathe…

_Play dead, Law._

So, Law did. Fingers white where they gripped Leon's hoodie, eyes closed, and with the only thought going around and around in his head:  _go away, go away, go away…_

Because his big brother always knew best.

"Did you get them, Crispin?" another soldier asked as he came from behind his friend.

… _go away, go away, go away…_

"Uhhhh…" the shooter drawled, uncertain. "I don't know? One definitely got hit, but the second doesn't seem to be moving either."

"So, go check them out. Maybe he just fainted, poor bugger."

… _go away, go away, go away…_

"No way, man! They are creepy, these white monsters," the soldier bemoaned. "What if he suddenly jumps and bites me? I might turn into one of them!"

His companion laughed, patting him on his shoulder. "So, just shoot them from afar to be sure. We need to hurry up, Captain's gonna be bitching at our team again. Hey, Eben, Basil, Jet, get your asses in the gear!" he shouted, walking away. "Those corpses won't crawl into the cart themselves even if you ask nicely!"

"Right…" Crispin muttered, lifting his rifle once more. "Shoot them from afar."

… _no no no no no no no, go away, go away, go away…_

Fear chained Law down, his heart racing, fingers curling painfully into Leon's hoodie material. The time screeched into a never-ending standstill.

… _go away, go away, GO AWAY!_

"Hey, Crispin! Tate's group encountered some infected survivors and having problems! We were asked to go as a backup, let's move!"

"Aye, Lieutenant!" the man yelled back, his weapon still trained on two boys.

"Hurry up, dumbass!"

The soldier cursed under his breath, but followed the order and rushed back to his team.

Black spots danced in Law's vision, his lungs screamed, and after few more moments, he allowed himself to gulp so much needed air. He still didn't dare to even twitch, so he lay there, his senses alert, listening.

Nothing. Just echoes of guns going off somewhere in the distance and fragments of shouts and screams.

"Oniisan?" he called, slightly shaking his big brother. No reaction. Law bit his lower lip, tears gathering in his eyes. He didn't let it fall though.

Gingerly, he shifted into sitting position with Leon's head left resting on his lap.

There was so much blood.

So much blood.

Why there was so much blood?

Law's hands were shaking. "Stop it," he hissed at himself, reaching to check the teen's pulse.

Nothing.

Panicking, he shifted his fingers, pressing harder, hoping… This time he felt it – the rhythmic beating of his brother's heart. Weak, but it was there.

Leon was alive. His oniisan was alive.

The boy took one precious minute to appreciate that fact, compose himself, and gather his thoughts. He couldn't stop shivering though. He examined Leon's head –  _so much blood!_  – delicately sifting through his black matted locks.

His brother always kept his hair longer than Law did and he loved to brush it away dramatically when he went on with his theatrics. Sometimes it got into his eyes, and mom always chided him for that–

There was no hole as far as Law could tell. The wound was deep and serious, the bullet dug across the whole length of his skull's left side, just above his ear, but it didn't go inside. Just a graze, if you could call this bleeding mess that.

Still, it was an extremely severe head trauma. The information Law had ever read or heard about such injuries flooded his mind without his consent, and he shuddered when he thought about all the imaginable repercussions.

Well, there wouldn't be any consequences at all if they get killed when those murderers came back. The boy looked around, his brain whirring with possibilities of good hiding spots.

Leon would know. He was so smart. Not book smart like Law was, but street smart, always knowing what to do and where to go and how to fix the world for his siblings as much as it was possible and always smiling when they needed to see it and getting serious when they required comfort–

Amber eyes slid past the cart full of dead people, left unattended in the middle of the street.

 _Play dead, Law_.

His gaze backtracked.

_Play dead, Law._

Law stared at the cart, then glanced down at his brother. That should work. Those people were afraid to even come close to check if they were dead or not so they wouldn't go out of their way to verify if all the corpses in there were corpses for sure. Better than to hide in the surrounding houses and be found without any means of escape. With his brother in this state…

So much blood–

Law slapped himself to stay focus on things at hand. And that was to get Leon into the cart.

* * *

Law awoke with a gasp, bruising touches of phantom hands still on his skin, dragging him down, down, down… to where all these unsettled souls ended up, snatched before their time. He instantly bit down on his lip, hard enough to make it bleed, tensing in fear to be detected.

The soldiers outside didn't seem to notice, occasionally sharing a few words between themselves. The cart sluggishly rolled forward, shaking and jolting on every bump, stone or someone's limb on the road.

Everyone around continued to stare at Law, glassy eyes and partially opened mouths demanding to know why.

Why?

WHY?!

The boy had no answers to give them.

Leon was still unconscious, but alive. For now. Law's clumsy attempts to stop the bleeding helped, but lying squashed between corpses definitely didn't.

Law gazed at his brother's pale face, sweaty and bloody, just inches from his own. "Don't die," he pleaded in an inaudible whisper. "P-Please, oniisan, don't die…"

* * *

Law completely lost track of time. He didn't know how long they were riding, but when the cart finally stopped, it caught him off guard. His heartbeat sped up, the anticipation of something happening too harrowing.

People were walking around, he could hear them. The boy prickled his ears. Someone barked the order to unload the cart, and it slightly sunk then a few people climbed on it.

Law's eyes widened. He didn't think about that!

The weight above started to decrease until the last body lying on top of two brothers was lifted and thrown to the side.

Law didn't move, keeping his eyes shut. He couldn't quite stop the trembling and muscles tensing when a pair of rough hands gripped his ankles and another pair – his wrists.

Perhaps those monsters didn't notice, perhaps they simply didn't care. Law was hurled over the edge of the cart and down into the pit without even a glance, like a sack of potato. He would have screamed, but fear seized his throat. He landed with an oof, his elbow hitting something hard, but it still was much softer when he'd expected from such height.

Corpses. He could see only corpses around him. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Old, young. Men, women. Lying in various positions, glazed eyes staring at the sky or following his every movement, asking, demanding to know why.

The pit wasn't that wide but deep enough and it stretched to both sides as far as Law could see, filled with dead people and with more being dropped from several different carts at once. The stench of blood and decay hung in the air like a heavy veil, almost visible with the naked eye – just reach out and touch it.

Law's eyes searched for only one person and one person only – his brother. Noticing him not that far, he scrambled up, at this very moment not really caring about being spotted by the enemy on the pit's edges. It was hard to move: limbs threatened to trip him, his feet slipping on blood and his leg getting stuck between two bodies.

Eventually, he made it.

The corpses hitting the bottom also stopped.

The people above disappeared, pulling the carts away for another round.

Law dragged Leon to the edge and collapsed there, hugging him like a lifeline. Sides of this nightmarish pit were too steep and too high for him to climb without help, even if he'd wanted to. With his brother in this condition (still alive, Law checked; the first thing he did upon reaching him), there was no way that he wanted to escape alone. And it was the middle of the day; he would have been spotted and killed.

Laughter – an insane, loud cackling – startled the boy. His head snapped towards the other side of the pit. There was a man standing, white shirt soaked red, arms thrown to the side, head turned up towards the heavens, and he just kept laughing.

A bullet between the man's eyes finally silenced him, courtesy of the passing soldier, followed by an angry, "If you're dead, stay dead!"

Law's arms around Leon tightened, afraid to make even the slightest sound, because they knew. Those murderers knew that some people they had thrown in were still alive. They simply didn't care.

Hatred – an insane, overwhelming loathing – grew roots, deep strong roots into his mind, heart, and soul like a macabre tree, pushing what was once important to the side, adding new dangerous ideas, twisting the personality and muddling up the rest.

These people, these monsters, these butchers…

Law bared his teeth.

He wanted to rip them all apart!

A wail echoed throughout the pit, a quiet, ghostly crying, audible only to those who shared the same fate, stuck in this hellhole.

The boy lowered his forehead on his brother's shoulder. Leon was all he got left and for him, Law was prepared to do anything.

* * *

The first thing that came to him was confusion. He didn't know where he was, how he got there, where he should be, what time of day it was, or what exactly happened. And why was everything swaying and hissing in his ears.

A headache came next, and he groaned. Just a dull, pulsating twinge which soon grew into soul-numbing pain, seemingly ready to burst his skull open at any given moment.

His stomach churned, acid rising up his throat. He managed to lean to the side before it all came out. He kept puking until there was nothing left and even then he continued to dry heave for a while.

Someone was speaking to him, but he couldn't quite make out what they were saying. It seemed as if the world was underwater, everything was moving in slow motion, and all sounds were garbled like a damaged recording. It was like a fog descended over all his senses.

He became aware of a hand, moving in soothing circles on his back.

They had been running, he and his little brother, he remembered. Running from the looters in their house. And then nothing.

He blinked, the disjointed haze receding to the point where he could make sense of the world around him. But his head was pounding, and he lifted his hand to press at it, or maybe rip it open instead, do  _something_ , anything to relieve the pain.

Someone caught his wrist.

"Leon-oniisan?"

Leon. Right. That was his name. He looked at the blurry figure, squinted. He knew that oddly shaped hat. "Law?" he croaked, his throat raw. The dry tongue was lying uncomfortably in his mouth. "What happen'?" he asked with a slight slur.

Law didn't reply right away. "You've been shot," he said quietly. "The bullet grazed your head, but didn't seem that it went inside."

Shot. Bullet. Head. Did he look like Kian now?

It took over half an hour for Leon to orient himself. He took in his surroundings calmly, a strange feeling of detachment taking over. No traces of shock, not fazed by finding himself in the mass grave in the slightest.

"–got thrown in here," Law finished explaining of what happened after he got shot (which Leon still couldn't recall and probably wouldn't). "I thought– I just wanted–"

"It was a good plan, Law." Leon put a hand on the top of his brother's hat, earning a startled, wide-eyed stare. "We're gonna get out of here," he said with confidence, unsure if he really felt this confident or was lying and not even realizing it. "We'll wait until night."

It was evening now. The sky was dark red, heavy clouds splashed with crimson, mirroring the bloody scenery below.

_Sleep_   
_let the demons in_   
_to reave your dreams with their wings_

They both whipped their heads towards the singing voice.

_Sleep_   
_leave your hopes behind_   
_No one's left to guard your peace of mind_

A woman was kneeling not far from them, a newborn baby resting in her arms. She stroked his cheek with the back of her palm lovingly, a twisted lullaby leaving her lips and weaving around anyone who listened, filling the rotting air in the pit like waves filled holes in beach sand.

_Sleep_   
_your road ends here_   
_what remains inside is only fear_

She put her baby down, slowly and carefully laying him into the crook of a deceased man's arm.

_Sleep_   
_for this story's over_   
_and the wraiths are drawing closer_

Her eyes glistened with tears as her hands moved to encircle the infant's neck.

_Sleep_   
_let the demons in tonight_   
_to slay your soul and take your light_

The brothers watched as the woman straightened up with the last syllable of her song, face shadowed by the blood-soaked hair. She pulled out a small pocket knife. Flicked it open. And slit her own throat with steady hands, without a moment's hesitation.

Leon tugged Law closer.

Neither uttered a word.

They waited.

* * *

Right before nightfall, the soldiers started to throw some kind of white powder into the pit. Bucket after bucket, the powder spread around, blanketing the river of the dead like snow.

Now they really became white monsters.

Leon sniffed at his hand covered with that stuff. Even through the stench of decaying bodies, he could smell chemicals. For what purpose, was beyond him.

After people above dispersed, brothers waited a few more hours. Deciding that it was safe to act, Leon nudged Law, who was just staring blankly into the distance and attempted to stand.

The world tilted, his stomach lurched, forcing its way up and out. The teen doubled over, falling on his knees. Nausea ceased as quickly as it started, leaving him paler than a sheet of paper and lathered in sweat.

"Oniisan?"

He didn't reply, afraid that if he opened his mouth, his guts would just spill on the clammy body under his trembling hands. Instead, Leon opted at getting himself on his feet. He managed, somehow.

The boy studied the side and ledge of the pit, then glanced down at his younger brother.

They looked like those wraiths from the woman's lullaby.

"Up," Leon croaked, motioning at the ledge with his head.

Law would have probably argued about going first if he hadn't been this exhausted. With a boost from below, he climbed it in no time.

However, it took lots of failed attempts for Leon to get out of the pit. Fruitless efforts pushed him to the point where he suggested for Law to go and leave him behind. However, his little brother shot it down with a flat refusal before he even finished the sentence.

Damn stubborn brat.

Ultimately, they made it, collapsing into a heap and allowing themselves a few precious minutes to rest.

The once grand city of Flevance was silhouetted against the bright glow of fires that still rampaged around it uncontrollably. The pit was located in the empty field at the outskirts, along the forest's line, stretching into the horizon on one side, but brothers could see the ending on another.

That's where they went, despite the enemy camp being right next to it. There were no patrols – who would need to patrol the dead? – and as they drew closer, drunken racket reached their ears.

Those monsters were celebrating the mindless slaughter of hundreds of thousands innocent people.

The boys silently made their way towards the camp, carefully sneaking around the edges where the light from bonfires couldn't reach. They were almost through, the safety of the forest only a few feet away, when a soldier stumbled out of the bushes, hands still tugging his pants up.

Leon and Law froze, their hearts instantly jumping into their throats, but all they could do was wait helplessly. There was no strength left to fight or run.

The man stared at the two children, unblinking. Slowly, all the blood drained from his face and his eyes widened until they were as wide as saucers. "G-G-Ghosts…" he stammered out, pointing a trembling finger at them. "Ghosts… Ghosts! Oh my god, it's ghosts! GHOSTS!" Screaming his head off, the drunkard dashed into the camp.

Two ghosts didn't wait for an audience and immediately moved into the forest, disappearing without a trace.


End file.
